Cynthia Nixon Campaigns in the Finger Lakes

Actress and activist Cynthia Nixon brought her campaign for Governor to Geneva Thursday morning. Standing with Seneca Lake as her backdrop, Nixon spoke to a topic that’s an ongoing issue in the Finger Lakes.

“My approach on solid waste management is this, first we have to make less of it.”

Gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon campaigns in Geneva

Credit Greg Cotterill / Finger Lakes Public Radio

Nixon was speaking in opposition to the proposal to build a waste-to-energy incinerator in the town of Romulus.

“California Governor Jerry Brown would never, ever allow a giant garbage incinerator to be sited in the middle of Napa Valley. Why in the world would our Governor Andrew Cuomo sit idly by and allow this incinerator to be sited in the heart of the Finger Lakes?”

In the face of overwhelming local and regional opposition to the plan, the developers have turned to the state’s Article 10 power plant siting process. Nixon expressed her support for bipartisan legislation to remove incinerators from that process.

“It has been introduced by Republican Senators Pam Helming and Senator O’Mara in the Senate. And, it has been introduced by Assembly Energy Committee Chair Democrat Michael Cusick and Ithaca assemblywoman Barbara Lifton. Today, I’m calling the state legislature to pass this bill this legislative session.”

She also announced her opposition to the Crestwood Propane Storage Project.

“This project was first proposed in 2009 and Governor Cuomo’s Department of Environmental Conservation has yet to make a final determination approving or rejecting the facility. Of course, we want environmental regulators to do careful study and make decisions based on science, but I do not need nine years to say no to this environmentally damaging project.”

Nixon opposes the construction of all new fossil fuel infrastructure in New York, supports divestment from the fossil fuel industry, and is calling for a transition to one hundred percent renewable energy.

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